Model railway enthusiasts in the UK who were due to hold an exhibition at a school were devastated after four drunken teenage vandals broke in and completely smashed up their layouts and displays.
The financial cost was bad enough, but the cost in time and effort and the pride and joy this inoffensive hobby brought to these people was incalculable.
I don't hide the fact that I love model railways and so this story takes on a slightly more personal meaning but this act of wicked nastiness has captured the imagination of a wider demographic.
This is an attack on personal passion. It's an affront to civilised society and it could have been any hobby or interest. It could have been a needlework display, a pet show, anything that people have invested their time passion in and its that passion that makes it so personal and a particularly wicked act.
The go-fund me campaign has raised thousands to help reimburse the financial cost, but the loss of hours, that pride and joy has been taken away and can never be compensated for.
When I was growing up as a kid in the 70s and 80s, vandalism was common, though not on this scale and the UK seemed to have mainly got rid of the scourge of petty, reasonless vandalism. These days, the streets are cleaner and you can use a public toilet which actually has working locks but this takes vandalism to a whole new level. Theft I can understand, it has a reason, even if its simply greed but mindlessly smashing up something you know has so much personal value to another human being I cannot for the life of me understand.
A scratch built loco and scenery which must have taken hundreds of man hours to create, irreparably smashed to pieces
Legally, these teenagers will get little more than a slap on the wrist for what will be considered 'drunken high jinxs' and their parents will have to face a manageable financial burden but I hope these kids will see it in their conscience to do anything they can to attempt to pay back a massive debt they owe to a community and learn a lesson about how deeply they have emotionally hurt so many people and what it means to have a true passion in life.
